Intermediate level students of English as a second language reach a critical stage in their language learning after which motivation wanes if no specific attainable goals are offered as encouragement to progress. The ability to enjoy recreational reading can provide those goals, but students must make the transition from dependence on the teacher for reading support to independent reading. The rewards of independent recreational reading include entertainment, greater linguistic competence, increasing confidence in approaching written discourse, and heightened cultural awareness. What is needed is a course in independent reading of fiction. Course units should cover: developing awareness of approaches to the text, creating expectations about a work of fiction, predicting the organization of the text, dealing with unfamiliar lexical items, increasing reading speed, recognizing cohesive links, understanding language in context, understanding a story and responding to it, and selecting the appropriate book to read. (MSE)